A survey study on early detection of young children with disabilities in urban and rural areas of China.

AIM: This study aimed to understand how children and families access early intervention in China. BACKGROUND: Timely identification and high-quality intervention is expected to prevent and reduce the occurrence and severity of chronic functional impairment for children with disability and is of great significance to individuals and the society. The current study recruited 1129 caregivers of children with disabilities from rural and urban areas of China were recruited to participate in a survey. RESULTS: (a) The first concern about development was raised, usually by the parents, when a child with disabilities was 26 months of age, (b) developmental screening took place 4 months after the first concern and diagnostic evaluation happened 7 months after, (c) the types of early intervention programme varied across urban and rural areas and (d) child and family factors were found associating with age of detection. CONCLUSIONS: Findings highlight the concerningly late age of children being identified for early intervention and disparities in services between urban and rural areas in China. Implications are provided for practitioners, policy makers and future research.

The effects of reading mode and braille reading patterns on braille reading speed and comprehension: A study of students with visual impairments in China.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of reading mode (oral and silent reading) and braille reading patterns (one-handed pattern, mark pattern, parallel pattern, cooperative pattern) on the reading speed and comprehension of students with visual impairments in China. Seventy-three students with visual impairments aged 10-19 years participated in the study; 48 were students with congenital visual impairments and 25 were students with adventitious visual impairments. The participants' braille reading performance was assessed by the Chinese Reading Comprehension Test. Measurement indicators included reading speed (wpm) and reading comprehension. The results indicated that (1) Reading mode had a significant effect on both reading speed and reading comprehension. More specifically, although participants read faster in silent reading than in oral reading, they demonstrated better reading comprehension in oral reading than in silent reading. (2) There was a significant interaction effect between reading mode and braille reading patterns on reading speed. In particular, participants using cooperative and one-handed patterns read faster than other patterns in silent reading. This difference did not exist in the oral reading mode. (3) There was no difference between the measurement indicators of the students with congenital and adventitious visual impairments. Implications and recommendations are given based on the analyses.